I was told this a couple of months ago and still cant understand it

3 guys arrive at a hotel after a long drive in their fiesta
They ask for a room. The owner of the hotel says they're is only 1 room left and its £30.
The three men agree that this is acceptable as they can then easily split the bill making it £10 each.
Later, the owner realises that he has over charged the three men.
So he calls the porter and gives him £5 to go and give to the men upstairs.
On his way upstairs. The porter thinks to himself, "How will I split £5 three ways?" So he takes £2 and keeps it in his pocket.
He gives £1 back to each of the guys upstairs.
So if you take that returning £1 off the £10 each paid, they paid £9 each.
but...
9x3=27 + the £2 kept by the porter = £29
Where's the last pound?

Cos it should be £9.33 each not £9.
£25/3 is £8.33 not £8.

there are two ways to answer this....

The first answer is to think in terms of two seperate transaction:
The first is they pay £30 for the rooms.
Then the second is that they should be refunded £5, but are only given £3 of it. So of the £30 they initially paid out £25 is actually for the room, £3 is refunded to them and £2 is kept by the porter. and if you total that all up, it equals £30.

Or the second way of thinking about is, if they were all refunded a pound from their ten pound, the they did indeed pay £9 each. 3 x £9 = £27 and minus the £2 the porter kept = the £25 for the room.

I think that is correct....i need a sit down...!

im very confussed haha
but i think i understand it lol